i was walking the halls this morning as a teacher stopped me. she asked if my car was the one with all the bumper stickers and the (expired) indiana license plate. proud of my silver bullet named Stella, i boasted a "yes!" then she delivers me the news: "you have a pretty flat tire." then i began to question her: was it just low or was it flat-flat. she informed me that it was just low, but it's extremely low and i need to get it looked at as soon as possible.
(i just got a call on the phone that yet another teacher has noticed that my tire is flat.)
so where am i going with my tire loosing air? how in the world could i possibly make an analogy of a flat tire to my walk with christ?
grab your java, let's mull over this for a few.
sin, it comes in many different forms, but it all causes one thing. sin, the very thing we don't want to do and do it anyway, causes separation from christ. it breaks a relationship, it causes guilt, it causes us to retract from the very thing we love. sin deflates us. when we let sin spin its nasty web in our lives, it becomes a habitual practice. we end up driving around our lives on flat tires, bending our rims, eventually unable to drive. air had seeped out of my tire and was ineffective for the job it was to do. i am so grateful that my coworkers pointed out the flaw in my car. do i rejoice when someone points out the sin in my life? am i quick to thank them? or am i quick to jump on them providing excuses as to why i am sinning? am i quick to form a rebuttal comparing my sin to theirs?"jesus answered them, 'truly truly i say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. the slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed'." -john 8:34-36how foolish i would have looked had i told my coworker that her tires were flatter than mine, that she needed to mind her own business, that my tires don't concern her. but don't we all do this with sin in our own lives?
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. -philippians 2:3-4i am at work, unable to leave. i need to fix my tire but i am so helpless here at work. i have to fix this sin problem, but fixing sin isn't a matter of changing behavior so you look the part. every 20-something eventually grows up and puts their childish, wild days behind them.
so do i just take off work and go fix it myself? do i wait, pray that everything pans out? do i just hope that the tire survives with the remaining air? do i just leave it as it, pretend like it never happened? i mean, after all, i CAN drive on it. i got to work didn't i!?
fix. i need a fix, a cure. help.
we've been down this road before. you let a problem go without resolve and it gets worse. sickness, bad relationships, flat tire, jobs.......sin.
fix. i need a fix, a cure. help.
this is where my husband comes to the rescue in my tire situation. mark comes to the school on wednesday's to help lead an FCA men's leadership group. i told him what was going on with my car, even though i couldn't see my tire for what it really was. i asked him to help me. i asked him to pay to put more air in my tires. i was really helpless. in a phase of waiting for mark to tell me my car was going to be okay. without hesitation mark, filled my tires.
so what about this sin problem? how can i fix this sin problem that has plagued me for nearly 25 years?
...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." -romans 10:9-10i tell jesus what is going on in my life, even though i can't really see my sin for what it really is. i ask jesus to help me. i ask jesus to pay the price for my sin. and without hesitation, jesus says, i have already done so. jesus paid the price to fix my sin when he died on the cross and rose victoriously over death. confessing to jesus that he is lord, believing in jesus, trusting that jesus is your heart mechanic is the only way to fix this sin problem. it was only when i acknowledged that air was leaking from my tires that anything could be done about it. have you acknowledged your sin before jesus? jesus will fill you, though air will continually leak out of my tires, though we will continue to sin on a daily basis, when you surrender you life to jesus christ, your past, present, and future sins have been paid for. confess to jesus, let him fill you.
romans 6 is my favorite chapter in the bible.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
have you surrendered control of your "loosing air" situation to jesus?
have you acknowledged your need for him to rescue you?
are you doing anything about the sin that someone has pointed out in your life?
are you being the friend and lovingly confronting someone about a sin you see destroying their life?
do you realize that without jesus, overcoming sin is impossible?
do you realize that sin is prohibiting you from being who God desires you to be and prohibiting you from doing what christ has called you to do?
stop leaking, ask jesus fill you.
